DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Many devices intended to provide a variety of exercises are described in the prior art. Of particular interest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,308 of Lee issued Feb. 10, 1998, which describes an elevated bench support having, at opposite ends, pivoting members tensioned by means of an elastic chord. The pivoting members permit only limited movement and thus limiting the number of exercises permitted is limited.
Simpler exercisers containing a single lever arm, pivoting at a position located a distance above abase, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,681 of Olschansky et al, issued Feb. 18, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,702 of Lee issued Feb. 24, 1998 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,343 of Huang issued Apr. 20, 1999, the first of these being associated with a floor supported base pad, the other two being associated with a wall mountable base support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,701 of Truini, issued Feb. 24, 1998, describes and illustrates an exercise device comprising a pair of lever arms secured to each other so as to pivot about an intermediate pivot point against a bias created by a plurality of resilient elements extending between posts positioned on each arm. Door or wall mounted exerciser devices featuring single, tensioned lever arms are described and illustrated in Bass, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,414 issued Apr. 18, 1995, and Ansel U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,323 issued Sep. 1, 1998.
All of these prior art devices are, relatively speaking, complicated in construction and restricted in the number of exercises which they can permit a user to perform.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a lightweight, portable, lightweight exercise device intended to provide muscle development exercises for the legs and hips (inner thigh, outer thigh), abdominal/stomach muscles, arm and chest muscles and buttocks. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a device which is both simple in construction and easy in operation, both to adjust to different exercises and also to use when carrying out a particular exercise. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a device which folds up into a small space for easy storage.